510 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



which existed between Shumard and himself. Both the statements 

 made and the manner in which they are presented are such as to prej- 

 udice the unbiased reader against Mr. Buckley, and this in particular 

 when one reflects that there was no apparent occasion for the publica- 

 tion in an official report of matters of this nature. Buckley was 

 replied to vigorously by A. R. Roessler, who had also been one of 

 Shumard's assistan ts. 



The main portion of both reports was given up to a discussion of 

 economic problems, and little that was new geologically appeared. 

 He noted the eruptive nature of Pilot Knob, but was unable to deter- 

 mine whether the period of eruption antedated the Cretaceous or not. 

 Much space was devoted to a discussion of soils and crops, together 

 with notes on the fauna and flora. 



In his report on the geology of Massachusetts (1833), and again in 

 1835 and 1841, Dr. Edward Hitchcock called attention to the flattening 

 and distortion of pebbles in a conglomerate near Newport, Rhode Island, 

 „.. . . , .,. as already noted. As time went on the importance 



Hitchcock sViewson - r 



of c^n et iomerati| m °^ tne sll bject, particularly in the light of subsequent 

 1861 • discoveries, seems to have grown upon him, and in a 



paper in the American Journal of Science for 1861, and in his reports 

 on the geology of Vermont for that same year, the ground is gone over 

 in great detail and his gradually expanding views fully elaborated. 



In his report of 1833 the conglomerates were described as composed 

 of elongated rounded nodules of quartz rock passing into mica slate, 

 with a cement of talcose slate, all with their longest diameters uni- 

 formly parallel, the entire mass, pebbles and all, being divided by 

 fissures as perfect as if "cut through by the sword of some Titan."'' 

 Later, while engaged in the work of the Vermont survey, he found 

 analogous conglomerates along nearly the whole western side of the 

 Green Mountains, and in 1859, in company with his son, C. H. Hitch- 

 cock, he again visited the Newport locality in search of facts to aid 

 him in solving the Vermont problem. His results were given before 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science that same 

 year, and the subject again brought before the Association by C. H. 

 Hitchcock in 18(50. 



The facts brought out and presented showed the pebbles to be (1) 

 much elongated in the direction of the strike of the beds; (2) that, 

 while flattened, this feature was not so striking as their elongation; 



(3) that they were often indented by one being pressed into another; 



(4) that they were often bent, sometimes in two directions; and (5) 

 that they were cut across by parallel joints, or Assures, at intervals 

 of from a few inches to many feet. These facts led him to conclude 

 that (1) the rock had once been a conglomerate of the usual character, 

 and had undergone a metamorphosis wherebv the cementing material 

 had become crystalline and schistose and the pebbles elongated, and 



